Constructing History, Culture and Inequality: The Betsileo in the Extreme Southern Highlands of MadagascarBRILL, 2002 - 241 pages During the early 20th century, a group of ex-slaves established a frontier society in the no-man's-land of the extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar. First settlers skilfully deployed a fluid set of Malagasy customs to implant a myth of themselves as tompon-tany or "masters of the land." Eventually, they created a land monopoly to reinforce their legitimacy and to exclude later migrants. Some of them were labelled andevo ("slave" or "slave descent"). The tompon-tany prohibited the andevo from owning land, and thereby from having tombs. This book focuses on the plight of the tombless andevo, and how their ascribed impurity and association with infertility, illness, death and misfortune made them an essential part of the tompon-tany world-view. |
Contents
The Construction of Inequality among Migrants | 28 |
Perpetuation of Social Hierarchy through Marriage | 54 |
The Economics of Social Marginalisation | 72 |
Marovato Revisited | 93 |
The Fate of the Andevo | 118 |
Tombs Funerals | 138 |
Burial Practices of the Tombless | 167 |
The Theory of Andevoness | 191 |
1 | 200 |
Bibliography | 215 |
Glossary | 227 |
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Constructing History, Culture and Inequality: The Betsileo in the Extreme ... Sandra Evers No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
Ambalavao ambiroa ancestors ancestral land andevo Andriabe Andriamaheva Andrianasolo Antananarivo arrival Bakoly Betsileo Bloch bridewealth brother claim commoner descent corvée cultivate daughter deceased descent group discussed Dubois extreme Southern Highlands family members family tomb fanahy father Fianarantsoa field FMG per kilo fomba gasy fosterage free descent frontier funeral harvest hasina hery households hova husband impure kilometres kinship Kopytoff Kottak labour Lalao lease land live Madagascar Mademoazely Malagasy customs Malgache manioc Marovato region marriage married Merina metropole Mitsiky Mitsiky's mpiavy mpikarama noble descent olompotsy olona madio olona maloto ombiasy Pelamainty poisoning principally Radama Rafidy Andriana Ragaby Rakoto Rakotozafy Ramonja Ramosa Randriamahalasa Raozy Rasolo Ratema Ratsara Ratsimbazafy refer rice ritual Sambo slave descent slavery social society socio-economic sorcery Southern Highlands tany tion tompon tompon-tany families tompon-tany family leaders tompon-tany village council vaki-ra vazaha Voahangy Western Marovato wife witchcraft witches zebus